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Is an Internet Kill Switch Feasible In the US?
wiredmikey writes "The 'Kill Switch' bill will introduce legislation that would give the US government power to limit Internet traffic in the event of cyber-security emergency. To recap recent events in Egypt, public political protests reached critical mass on January 25th and on January 27th, Internet connectivity and access across the region began plummeting ultimately leading to a five-day blackout. The question remains: could the same approach be taken in the US?"
Wait for the next Comcast outage and then shout "we did that on purpose!".
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
She: "Did you do something to the Internet? It's not working."
Me: "Yes, that's one of my superpowers from the radioactive spider bite and gamma ray treatment. I can turn off the Internet at will."
Now I can say:
"Oh, that's just the Obama daughters, playing with the Internet Kill Switch in the White House."
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Would this take a Kill Bill?
I would love to have a trial run of this scenario.
The goal would be to get an Internet connection from outside the US to a city well inside the US using nothing over which the US government has control. E.g., from Clifton Hill, ON (Niagara Falls) to Pittsburgh, PA. Or somewhere in Vancouver, BC to Portland, OR.
This would likely necessitate the use of strategically positioned WiFi access points and lots of cantennas or similar directional devices. Exceeding the wattage cap could be considered in-bounds if its detection is difficult or detection of the detection is easy. Multiple routes would be nice, but even a single connection is better than nothing at all.
This could help the public (eh, mostly geeks) develop a plan to Internet the US if the gov't gets ISPs by the balls or cuts cables. Plausible deniability would be built in later somehow.
Colin Dean Go a year without DRM